Raj Anand’s transition from law to development consulting has been nothing short of inspiring. In this blog, he speaks about his journey, delving into his experiences. Here's what he had to share:
Raj Anand (RA): "By training, I'm a lawyer and I've been with Athena for about 2 1/2 years now.
Legal training makes you very meticulous and a critical thinker. You evaluate every phenomenon from a very multidimensional lens. This comes in handy when drafting recommendations – I tend to consider multiple perspectives to ensure they're actionable and operationally streamlined which means they should be ready for real world implementation."
RA: "In November 2022, we had this mandate from IWMI (International Water Management Institute) to write 15 country reports on circular bioeconomy. It was an intense procedure for the team. I remember how the first report I drafted for Kenya was appreciated by our client and went on to become the template for the remaining 14 reports. It was gruelling but I genuinely enjoy high-stress situations, and the work experience will stay with me."
RA: "The remote aspect is definitely there - the flexibility it offers is great. But more importantly, I really like the people I work with. My team - Shruti, Rashi, and Trapti - they're exceptional professionals and extremely nice human beings. I love working with them."
RA: "It was my interest in policy making that made me consider the social impact sector. Here at Athena, we handle projects with a genuine intention to see them through. We approach our work with earnestness and a motivated desire to actually implement changes. This practical approach to creating impact, even if on a smaller scale, is what drew me to development consulting."
RA: "I've been to a lot of places, but one that stands out was in Maharashtra for this project with IFPRI - International Food Policy Research Institute. It was a baseline study of nature-positive practices. They wanted to understand what farmers in Maharashtra were doing in terms of nature-positive practices.
India's farming is very seasonal and in quite a few places there are infrastructural, storage and transportation challenges. We were talking to this farmer about his tomato crop, and he was telling us how they harvest the crop and have to keep it in the field, trying to cover it up as best they can. But they have limited resources, so it's not always possible to cover everything.
He told us about this time when they harvested the entire crop, and then the next night it rained. The crop was completely spoiled because harvested crops aren't resilient to rain. A lot of it just rotted away and they lost a lot of money.
It's one of those things that you feel so helpless about. These farmers deserve so much better. Correcting a few variables, can actually help the yield productivity to go up. The work we do at Athena aims to address such issues.”
